Along the centuries, Mothers have been celebrated and honored. Starting in the 1600’s, the English celebrated Mothering Sunday on the fourth Sunday of Lent which honored the Virgin Mary with a prayer service. Employees and servants were allowed to travel to their hometowns to visit family and children brought gifts and flowers to pay tribute to their mothers. Unfortunately, this celebration died out in the 19th century.

In the United States, Ann Reeves Jarvis of West Virginia, started the “Mother’s Day Work Clubs” to teach women in her area how to properly care for their children. After the Civil War these clubs promoted unity and peace in an area still torn apart by the war. In 1868, Ann created “Mothers’ Friendship Day”, where mothers got together with union and confederate soldiers to help with reconciliation.

Following Anna’s death in 1905, her daughter, Anna Jarvis, decided to carry on her mother’s memory by promoting “Mother’s Day” as a way to pay tribute to each mothers sacrifice for their children. The first official Mother’s Day was held at a Methodist church in West Virginia. After this small success Anna kicked off a letter writing campaign to politicians and newspapers to make it a national holiday. After several years of persistence and its being adopted by many towns, Mother’s Day was declared an official holiday by President Woodrow Wilson in 1914.

Ann Reeves Javis Anna Reeves Javis

In our era, not only do we honor the sacrifices of our mothers, we also use Mother’s Day to celebrate and honor the many women in our lives who are important, grandmothers, step mothers, aunts, neighbors and all of the ladies that make a difference in our lives. The entire staff of Bank of Memories & Flowers would like to officially say Thank you to all the women in our lives, especially our moms! Thanks for all you do!